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Obtaining Ethical Approval from the Committee

According to university policy, any research involving human participants must receive prior approval from a faculty or university-level ethics committee.
Ethical approval is granted by the joint Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Humanities, Faculty of Law, and the School of Education.

Conditions for Conducting Research Involving Human Subjects
Researchers submitting a request for ethical approval must also:

 - If the research involves a vulnerable population, obtain prior approval from the relevant authority or institution responsible for that population (e.g., Ministry of Education, Israel Prison Service, Ministry of Defense). This approval is in addition to, and does not replace, university ethics approval.

 - In the event of an incident or the discovery of potential risk to participants, immediately notify the committee that approved the research.

 - Retain the original approval in case of audits by funding bodies or government agencies.

 - Complete ethics training through the CITI Program.

 - Research conducted as part of a master’s thesis or doctoral dissertation must also be reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee prior to data collection. A copy of the approval must be included in the final version of the research proposal and thesis.

Submitting a Request for Ethical Approval – Joint Committee of the Faculties of Humanities, Law, and the School of Education

 - Requests for ethical approval must be submitted using the official application form, available for download here. The submission must also include the research instruments and the informed consent form that participants will be asked to sign.

 - When submitting the application, please combine all materials—CITI certificate, consent form, application form, etc.—into a single PDF file. The request must be submitted via the online questionnaire (Hebrew only), and the file can be uploaded at the end of the form.

 - The approval is valid for 18 months from the date of issue.

For any questions or issues, please contact: ethicsedu@savion.huji.ac.il

Researchers, instructors, and graduate or doctoral students conducting research involving human participants are required to hold a certificate confirming completion of ethics training. As of the 2012–2013 academic year, ethics committees will not approve research grant applications or student research proposals without this certification. To support compliance, the university provides access to the CITI Program, an online platform that issues a certificate upon completion of training. Instructions for using the platform are available here.

Requesting an Extension of Ethics Approval

To extend ethics approval, applicants must use the official form, available for download here. The submission must also include the original application, the existing approval letter, and valid CITI certificates. Please combine all documents into a single PDF and send to: ethicsedu@savion.huji.ac.il

Extensions are valid for 12 months from the date of issue.

 Research Conducted as Part of Course Instruction

 - Student research proposals submitted as part of seminar courses must be reviewed and approved by the course instructor and an additional faculty member from the department. The course instructor is responsible for obtaining the second approval and must report the approved proposals to the Chair of the Faculty Ethics Committee for documentation.

 - Faculty members who approve student research within the context of instruction are also required to complete ethics training via the CITI Program.

 - In cases involving specific ethical concerns or potential risk, student proposals must be submitted to the Ethics Committee for full review.

 - If the research is part of a project previously approved by the Ethics Committee and using the exact same procedures, the student may present a copy of the approved ethics form submitted by the faculty member who received the original approval.

 

Please Note:

  • Requests submitted after the research has been completed will not be reviewed.
  • Requests that do not follow submission guidelines will not be considered. Thesis and dissertation proposals should not be submitted.
  • Requests submitted without the signature of the principal investigator/supervisor will not be reviewed.
  • Requests submitted without a valid ethics training certificate will not be reviewed.
  • For revised submissions, additions should be highlighted in yellow and deletions in green.
  • Ethics approvals issued by the university’s committees do not replace approval from the Chief Scientist of the Ministry of Education. It is the researcher’s responsibility to obtain this approval.

 

Committee Members